I often think about mineral names and their meanings. I don't mean the IMA names that often trace back to Latin or ancient Greek words, I rather mean names that miners, scientists or collectors gave minerals in their own languages after they were discovered - and before there was an institution like IMA that standardized them in oder to have a scientific system that is valid all around the world.

My own language has many of such old names. Germany is a country with a long and rich history in mining, mineralogy and mineral collecting, because it is (or rather was) a mineral-rich country where many famous classics come from. Because of these facts, German language has many traditional names for minerals. Of course, as a collector nowadays you mostly use the official IMA names on your labels, but often private collectors (and also some museums!) still use some of the old names, e.g. Bleiglanz instead of Galenit (galena).

I would like to know if there are such old names (that are maybe still used) in other languages. Well, I'm sure there ARE such old names, but I would like to hear some samples and what they mean ;)

Tobi, I am sure you may get many replies to this. There are MANY such names in English--some old, some more recently coined, many originating in the U.K., but some in America too. I know of a few such obsolete, synonymous, or varietal names in Spanish (because I'm less familiar with that language), and I'm sure there must be others in other languages. Several books have been published listing such names; one is
Glossary of Mineral Synonyms, by Jeffrey de Fourestier. Canadian Mineralogist, Special Publication No. 2, Ottawa, Ontario, 1999, 448 p.
A few names that come to mind in English: Calamine, selenite, heavy spar, Herkimer diamonds, ruby jack, balas ruby, ruby silver, mozarkite, isinglass, verdigris, turkey fat ore, worm ore, wood tin... (some such names are simply translations or transliteratures of the German).

Hi Tobi
Effectively, there are a lot of popular names for minerals, in Spanish as in many other languages. Surprisingly, some of them arise from German. For example, we call sphalerite as "blenda" or "blenda de cinc", where "blenda" comes in turn from the German word "blinder" (similar in English to "blind"), as this mineral was useless when the miners were trying to obtain silver or lead.
Another example is "almagra", word used for red iron oxide (hematite, goethite...). Its origins is Arabian: "al magarah" (the red earth).
Silver in Spanish is "plata", arising from medieval Latin "plata" (metal sheet), originally "plattus". Gold is "oro", from the Latin "aurum".
I do not know if there is other word in English for hematite. In Spanish we also have "oligisto", from the Greek "oligistos" ("very little"), as this ore gives less iron than others.
Annabergite and erythrite are named "blossoms" (or flowers, I am not sure about the correct translation...): nickel and cobalt "blossoms" (flores de níquel" and "cobalto").
The kalinite is the mineral (or the main mineral) in the "alumbre", from the Latin "alumen". "Piedra imán" (magnetic stone) is the traditional name for magnetite, and "piedra de canela" (cinnamon stone) was used for grossular.
Probably there are more, but I do not remember them now...
Surely someone will provide with other names!
Best regards

Fältspat = Feldspar where spat comes from the readiness to cleave (spalta)
Kalkspat = calcite
Flusspat= Fluorite where flues refers to flowing, fusspot was and is used to make metals "float" (melt at lower temperatures)
Tungspat (Heavy spar) = Baryte

As mining geology mineralogy chemistry was very important in both Sweden and Germany during several centuries or the last millennia and languages have many similarities, thus many old words have the same structure with in principle small spelling differences.

Hi James
Not so. We also use "specularite" ("especularita" in Spanish) to refer to hematite crystallized in the form of brilliant plates ("mirrored", since"speculum" is the Latin word for mirror).
However, "oligisto" means (or we use in such way) any form of hematite.
Regards

Interesting to see that some descriptive names are the same in different languages, e.g. Kobaltblüte (German), Flor de Cobalto (Spanish), Fleur de Cobalt (French), Koboltblomma (Swedisch) or Cobalt Flower (English) for erythrite.

Some other examples with (imho) beautiful descriptive names from German language that come to my mind:

One of the most amusing descriptions of a mineral I have heard, is the name given by locals from some areas from Namibia and South Africa for Mica. They call it 'aapspieel' which, when translated freely, means 'monkey mirror'._________________Pierre Joubert

One of the most amusing descriptions of a mineral I have heard, is the name given by locals from some areas from Namibia and South Africa for Mica. They call it 'aapspieel' which, when translated freely, means 'monkey mirror'.

Indeed really amusing ;-) As a German, I can see a resemblance to my own language, where "monkey mirror" would be "Affenspiegel" - though we don't use that term for a mineral ;-)

Tobi, correct me if I have it wrong, but one of my favorite German terms is the one used to described certain V-shaped twins such as the attached anatase twin. It is a Vogelschnabelzwilling - a bird's beak twin. Or perhaps even a Vogelschnabelanataszwilling!

Ana2.jpg

Mineral:

Anatase (twin on {011} )

Locality:

Solumsĺsen Quarry, Holmestrand, Vestfold, Norway

Dimensions:

crystal is 0.17 mm wide

Description:

Imaged at 80x with a Nikon SMZ1500 scope. Stack of 9 images with Helicon Focus.

Viewed:

1812 Time(s)

_________________Collecting and studying crystals with interesting habits, twinning, and epitaxy

Tobi, correct me if I have it wrong, but one of my favorite German terms is the one used to described certain V-shaped twins such as the attached anatase twin. It is a Vogelschnabelzwilling - a bird's beak twin. Or perhaps even a Vogelschnabelanataszwilling!

To be honest, I have never heard the term Vogelschnabelzwilling. Even Google doesn't know the word :-(

Well, I'm sure I saw it someplace, but I can't document it... And now, of course, it IS on Google, as a result of this exchange!_________________Collecting and studying crystals with interesting habits, twinning, and epitaxy

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